Ag Reserve Compromise Stalls

A compromise that would have allowed homes and golf courses alongside preserved farmland in the Agricultural Reserve fell apart on Tuesday, just before a key County Commission vote.

The deal would have allowed landowners in the 20,500-acre area west of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach to develop as much as 40 percent of their land, as long as the rest is set aside by covenant for farm or open space.

The rules would have applied only to farms of 250 acres or more, though smaller landowners could join together to reach the threshold.

But farmers balked after state land planners insisted on a last-minute change that would have barred landowners from developing their land unless water and sewer lines already ran to an adjacent property.

Currently, utility lines run up to the edges of the Agricultural Reserve, at Clint Moore Road and Florida's Turnpike, but not into it.

For example, a property owner at Boynton Beach Boulevard and U.S. 441 couldn't build until all the other properties to his east already had made development plans and hooked up to water and sewer lines. Currently, the nearest sewer line ends two miles away at the turnpike.

"These are established principles for cutting down on the cost [of utility improvements) and avoiding urban sprawl," said Terrell Arline, an attorney for the Florida Department of Community Affairs. "It makes sure that development doesn't leapfrog over other development."

The late change infuriated leaders of the Rangeline Coalition, an influential group of Agricultural Reserve landowners. They say being forced to wait for their neighbors denies their rights.

"It sets up a concept where you have no development option at all," said Hugo Unruh, the coalition's lobbyist. "I don't know development anywhere in the country that has progressed this way."

"It would probably be difficult to drive your tractor around the tennis courts to get [to the fields)," she said.

Commissioner Mary McCarty suggested the plan ought to provide for business parks as well as homes and golf courses.

"If it's not going to be agriculture, I'd rather see a Motorola out there than another golf course community," she said.

Because of the last-minute turmoil, commissioners agreed to postpone a vote until Sept. 5 so state and county planners could meet with the Rangeline Coalition and work out the problems.

If a deal is reached, it would solve a six-year-old dispute between the county and Agricultural Reserve farmers. In 1989, commissioners put a moratorium on nonfarm development in the area so they could map out a plan for its future.

But as the years dragged on without resolution, farmers chafed under the building restrictions and threatened a lawsuit if the building ban weren't lifted.

Last year, the commission finally agreed to change the county's growth plan and lift the building ban. Since then, the state, county and farmers have wrangled over the details - right up until Tuesday's meeting.

In a separate vote, the commission also approved a farmland preservation ordinance that will take effect if voters pass a $70 million bond issue in November.

The money would be used to purchase development rights to farmland in the Agricultural Reserve.